


Five Times Schneider Kissed Penelope’s Forehead, and One Time She Kissed His

by deandratb



Category: One Day at a Time (TV 2017)
Genre: (i killed Victor. sorry not sorry), 5+1 Things, Alvareider, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Forehead Kisses, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Slow Burn, not quite smut but close
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 11:15:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13523091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deandratb/pseuds/deandratb
Summary: A post-S2 epic, full of slow burn and found family feelings.Before Schneider moves ahead of her to hold the door open, he leans down and plants a firm kiss in the center of her forehead. “Remember to keep breathing. He’s gonna be fine.” She can feel the warm imprint of his lips against her skin, long after he pulls back and smiles down at her.





	Five Times Schneider Kissed Penelope’s Forehead, and One Time She Kissed His

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be a little bit of fluff to enjoy Schneider's appreciation for forehead kisses. It got totally out of hand.
> 
> Also, I wrote this before I realized that the ORIGINAL sitcom's version of Schneider was Dwayne, but S3 finally gave us the truth so I have now fixed that.

**I.**

“You know,” Penelope tells him quietly in the hospital hallway, while Lydia’s resting--but awake now, _gracias Dios,_ and going to make a full recovery--“I heard you, in there. I heard what you said.”

Schneider blinks at her. “Which part? Because all that stuff I said about changing my name to Alvarez, I was kidding. Mostly.”

“Not that. I mean, I heard that too--don’t do that.” She smiles a little. “But I heard...well, all of it. And I had no idea. _Mami_ visited you in rehab?”

“Yeah.”

“She never told me.”

“I didn’t want anybody to know. She’s classy, your mom. She can keep a secret.”

Penelope nods, thinking back. “You know, she’s always liked you? I just thought it was the flirting. She loves attention from young and handsome men.”

He lifts an eyebrow. “You think I’m handsome?”

“Not really.” She squeezes her eyes shut. “But she does. And who are we kidding, she loves attention in general. The number of times I had to--”

Penelope’s breath catches on the laugh, turning it into a sob...and without warning the dam breaks.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay.” He reaches his arms around her, and presses his lips to her forehead. “She’s going to be fine. The doctor said she’s out of the woods.”

“Oh, what do they know?” She mumbles it against his shirt, her fingers curled into the fabric while the tears just keep coming. 

She had to shove the lingering feelings, the guilt and the anger and the terror, back down so her mom wouldn’t see them. As much as Penelope hates to admit it, she is only human--it was inevitable, this crack in the wall that leaves her shaking and forgetting to breathe.

 _But did her breakdown have to come **now?**_ she thinks, annoyed with herself...and with Schneider, his head still resting on top of hers, sitting too close in the uncomfortable chairs so he can stay wrapped around her.

Damn him for being so understanding and sweet and present. 

“You’re right,” he drawls back after a moment. “What makes doctors think they know everything. Hey, Pen, remind me what you’re going to school for, again?”

Penelope rolls her eyes and doesn’t dignify the joke with a response, sniffling while she leans away from the embrace. She really shouldn’t have eavesdropped.

Not just because it was rude, though it was.

But because now, she will always remember the sound of Schneider’s voice breaking at the thought of losing her mother. And the way he’d stared at Lydia surrounded by Christmas lights, before Penelope entered and he looked right through her, still awash in memories.

Schneider had adopted them all quickly, resistant to their efforts to kick him out and lock the door behind him. Penelope had figured he’d just needed them too much to take the hint.

But it turned out it was her _Mami,_ all along, who had adopted him back, making him part of her family without telling anybody his secrets.

That’s what Penelope knows now, that she didn’t before. 

They sit in the harsh light of the hall, Schneider patting her arm while her tears dry, and she tries to figure out what to do with the revelation.

**II.**

“Time moves too fast,” Penelope tells him, unashamed of the slight whine in her voice as they watch Elena disappear through the security scanner.

The tinny music in the terminal is grating on her nerves, and Lydia and Alex said their goodbyes at home the night before, leaving her alone with Schneider while her only daughter flies off to college across the country.

“It’s really not fair,” he replies, “that we can’t go all the way to the gate. Remember when that used to be a thing? We could see her actually get on the plane, watch it take off. I’d feel better if they let us do that. Having to say goodbye before she’s even through security just isn’t the same.”

She listens silently, mapping the airport in her mind. Elena should be passing a Starbucks right about now. They’d gotten there with a whole hour to spare, just to be safe. 

“I wish she would have at least let me pay to upgrade her to first class,” Schneider adds. “She would be so much more comfortable. I know I would.”

“This is **Elena** you’re talking about. There was no way she was ever going to let you do that. You’re just lucky you didn’t get a three hour lecture on income inequality and carbon credits for suggesting it.”

“I just want her to have a safe trip,” he protests, shifting a little where he stands.

“I know. And she knows that, too,” Penelope promises. “Besides, she loved the luggage you got her.”

“Fair trade, eco-friendly rolling suitcases with some of the profits going to the Human Rights Campaign? What’s not to love?”

His sincerity makes her laugh, lightening the mood a little.

“She’s so excited,” Penelope says. “She’s never been this far from home before, and we won’t get to see her until Thanksgiving, maybe Christmas...she’s just so happy.”

“Oh, Pen.” Schneider pulls her into a sideways hug, adding a friendly forehead kiss for good measure. “She’s kind, and smart, and she worked so hard. You all did, to get her here. She’s gonna be great.”

“I know.” She nods emphatically, but the tears are coming, and she can’t stop them. “I know.”

“So what is it?”

“Everything’s changing. _Mami_ and Dr. Berkowitz, Elena’s off to college, school’s getting harder...it’s a lot to handle.”

“Well, you still have Alex."

“For now.” Penelope sniffled. 

“And I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yeah.” It’s strange how comforting that is. “I mean, never say never, though...you could be lucky like my mom and end up engaged.”

“Me? Nah.” Schneider grins. “And deprive the female population of all this?” He flings his arms out, almost hitting a passing flight attendant. “Better to keep things cas.’ Leave my options open.”

“Right.” Penelope stifles the urge to point out that he’s rapidly approaching forty-five, that he’s not a twenty-six-year-old playboy like he seems to believe. _Let the man have his delusions._

“So, do you want to stay until she boards?”

“I...” Of course she does. But she can’t ask Schneider to do that, stand around for an hour, for no reason, really. Sentimentality. _Superstition._

His voice softens knowingly. “Penelope. Do you wanna stay?” He runs his thumb along the curve of her cheek, catching a tear as it falls. “I’ll buy you a pretzel.”

She chuckles. What the heck, it’s not every day her firstborn moves to Massachusetts. “I’d rather get pizza.”

“I think I can handle that.” He shoves his hands into his pockets as they walk. “We’ll get a slice, make sure her plane takes off...when they let her turn her phone back on and she texts you, then we’ll head home.”

 _Home,_ on Schneider’s lips, sounds more intimate than it should. She expected to feel lonely, seeing Elena off without her father or her brother or her _Abuelita._

But while Penelope can admit to a bittersweet sadness at the way her kids just won’t stop growing up, it turns out she doesn’t feel lonely at all.

**III.**

“Oh, God, Schneider, is he okay? Where’s Alex?”

Schneider grabs both her hands with his, holding her in place. “He’s fine, Pen. He’s fine. But you don’t want to freak him, out, yeah? So take a breath.”

“What happened?” The air shudders into her lungs while she fights the panic. Of course if something were really wrong, Schneider would have told her in the message--but all Penelope can think is that while her son is seventeen now, practically a man, he’s still her little boy and he’s injured.

“He broke his arm. It’s a fracture, but not a compound one. He slid home a little too enthusiastically, and slammed into the catcher. Broke the kid’s nose and sort of...flipped over his back? The ump called it, Alex was safe--not the point, I know,” Schneider rushes to add. “The point is, he’s going to get a wicked cool cast and a lot of attention at school and he’ll be in heaven after the pain fades.”

“It’s just his arm?”

 _A broken arm isn’t so bad,_ Penelope thinks with relief. It’s actually pretty surprising that she’s never had to bring either of her kids in for a broken limb before.

“Yeah.” Schneider squeezes her hands before letting go. “He probably has some bruises, but it’s mostly just the arm.”

“Okay.” She lays her hand over her heart, feeling the rhythm of it start to settle down. “Okay. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, Schneider, but thanks for coming in with him. I’m really glad he wasn’t alone.”

“Oh, please. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

He watches Penelope run a hand over her curls and straighten her scrubs. “Ready to head in?”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s go.”

Before Schneider moves ahead of her to hold the door open, he leans down and plants a firm kiss in the center of her forehead. “Remember to keep breathing. He’s gonna be fine.”

She can feel the warm imprint of his lips against her skin, long after he pulls back and smiles down at her.

“Yes,” Penelope agrees, drawing in one more slow, deep breath. Alex will be fine.

Thanks to Schneider’s loyal presence at every one of Alex’s games, she never has to worry that her son will be in any real danger. 

And if he’s become more casually affectionate over time, she can’t say it bothers her. Schneider is a tactile person, she has figured out, and trying to comfort is a reflex for him.

Boyfriends have come and gone; Penelope is still looking for The Guy.

But Schneider stays.

She can no longer imagine her life, or her family, without him.

**IV.**

When she comes to him after Victor dies, Schneider is expecting it. The whole family has been shaken by the loss, especially the kids, but he knew it would be hardest on her.

Nobody has ever loved him the way Penelope loved the father of her children. He doesn’t have to have experienced that kind of bond to understand that a part of her still belonged to Victor, even after everything, and that part is breaking in his arms.

“I’m sorry,” she says as he leads her inside. “I just couldn’t...I couldn’t let the kids or my mom see me like this. They need me to be strong.”

“I get it. I’m here, okay? Whatever you need.”

“Thanks.” She leans against him a little, curling her legs beneath her on his couch.

“Are you holding up alright?” He shakes his head before she can answer. “Stupid question. What I mean is...you’re still on your meds? Uh, you’re going to your group?”

Penelope sighs. “Yeah. I’m doing everything I can. I just...I couldn’t sleep, you know? I keep having these nightmares, of what it must have been like for him. I keep remembering him with me in that bed. It’s too much, Schneider. It won’t stop.”

“You can tell me,” he replies gently, holding back the empty promises that he wishes he could offer. His best friend is a realist, and all the assurances in the world that things are going to get better won’t help her right now.

“I can’t figure it out,” she continues. “Why now? How could he do this? I’m going in circles in my head, trying to make it make sense, but it doesn’t.”

“I’m so sorry, Pen, but it’s never going to. Addiction doesn’t make any sense at all. I should know.”

She nods, tears starting to fall again, and Schneider can’t help noticing the dark circles under her eyes. With frightening clarity, he can picture her collapsing at work or nodding off behind the wheel. She isn’t going to be able to survive on coffee and stubbornness for much longer. 

“Hey.” He reaches for her hand. “Why don’t you sleep here tonight? You can have my bed.”

“What?”

“The sheets are clean,” he offers. “I’ll be on the couch, so you won’t be totally alone. You can head upstairs in the morning before Lydia wakes up, and nobody will be the wiser.”

She’s too tired to think of a reason not to. He probably has Egyptian cotton sheets on that lake-sized bed, with a ridiculous thread count. But more importantly, Victor never set foot here. Schneider’s apartment isn’t haunted like hers.

“Yeah, okay. It’s worth a try, right?”

“Anything is right now,” Schneider agrees. “Come on.”

He keeps hold of her hand until they reach his bed, and she doesn’t pull away. Parenting, caretaking, all that selfless grown-up stuff he has no practice at...it surprises him how much he enjoys being able to tuck her in. 

Penelope is a force of nature, but she looks so small under his covers. Tired, and sad, and fragile. Schneider smooths her hair back from her face while she covers a yawn.

“I’ll see you in the morning. Come find me, if you need anything.”

“We loved him so much. Why couldn’t we be enough?” Penelope whispers as her eyes finally close.

“I don’t know,” Schneider murmurs back, brushing his lips over her forehead. He would give anything to fix this, but he can’t even impart some piece of perfect wisdom that will make it all make sense.

Some addicts recover. Some don’t.

He never really liked Victor; he firmly believes that Penelope and her kids deserved better than the sporadic effort they got from the man...but they also shouldn’t have to live through this.

Penelope’s breathing deepens, and he tucks his blankets around her a little more securely.

When he goes to sleep on the couch, Schneider leaves the door open a crack. Just in case.

He knows exactly how it feels to wake alone out of the nightmares.

She’s not going to be alone, tonight.

**V.**

It’s just past midnight, a few months after Alex’s high school graduation--two years after Lydia finally, in grand dramatic fashion, married Leslie.

From her parents’ house to the Army, marrying young then coming back home to her mother’s apartment...Penelope is completely on her own for the first time.

The apartment is too quiet, too big, way too empty. But she’s always welcome at Schneider’s.

He’s drinking sparkling water and she’s drinking wine, the two of them alternating toasts to her youngest and his bright future.

Schneider is surprisingly cool about her coming over to get buzzed in his company. He surprises her a lot these days--more serious than he used to be, just as sincere. 

“I’m the one with a problem,” he pointed out when he invited her over. “You’re totally capable of stopping after half the bottle and not ending up naked on a beach somewhere south of the border with glitter where glitter should never be.”

She doesn’t stop halfway through the bottle, though, and he doesn’t point that out. It’s a party, of sorts. And nobody else is gonna drink it. Penelope doesn’t relish the idea of taking it home and finishing it off alone some other night.

She’s already sick of alone time.

She’s just lucky Schneider isn’t sick of **her;** he’s especially good company when she’s feeling her age and maudlin with it.

“How did this day get here so fast?” Penelope sets the empty bottle aside and swirls the last of the wine around her glass, watching the patterns it makes as though she’ll be able to divine her future in them.

“Well, the sun does a thing, and the Earth rotates, and the days, they just keep coming.”

She snorts, then giggles at the sound. Penelope slid well past buzzed two glasses ago, settling into a warm, cottony state of drunk. Schneider is watching her fondly, not bothered by the way wine makes her softer and less coherent, prone to speeches and compliments.

He keeps sipping his fizzy water as though it’ll start to taste good. 

She admires his self-control. He might be watching her with longing, but it’s not because of the wine.

The dizzy spin of her head whenever she makes the mistake of moving doesn’t stop her from noticing the way he’s looking at her.

Was he looking at her like that before tonight? She can’t tell. Truthfully, Penelope has gotten so used to Schneider being a fixture in her world that she hasn’t been paying very close attention.

Maybe she’s careful **not** to pay attention, because she’s gotten used to him. Maybe she just wants to avoid the possibility of him going away.

“Everybody goes away,” Penelope says out loud, blinking at him when she realizes he heard her. “You know? They all leave.”

“Your kids were ready for their lives, Pen. And Lydia sure deserved a second chance at forever. They weren’t rejecting you.” 

She sighs. “I know. In my head, I know that.” 

Putting her glass down, she taps her heart, warm eyes on his. “But in here?”

“Yeah?”

“Schneider...I’m just so sick of being lonely. You know? Elena and Alex are all grown up now, my mom is remarried, and here I still am, alone. What if I’m alone forever? What if I never find somebody to share my life with?”

“Don’t be an idiot.” His words come out harsher than he intended. He winces. “What I mean is, there’s exactly a zero percent chance that you, of all people, are going to spend the rest of your life alone.”

He sets his own glass down and leans forward, better for making sure she’s really hearing him.

“So what if you haven’t found the right person yet? You will.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Schneider leans in even further, until he can touch his lips lightly to her forehead. He stays like that for several long seconds, while Penelope lowers her gaze to the couch cushion between them. 

It’s so sweet her chest aches. It’s almost a benediction.

He pulls away and watches as her lashes flutter back up, his eyes solemn on hers. 

“You will.”

**VI.**

“She didn’t text you yet, did she?”

Schneider rubs his eyes while Penelope pushes her way into his apartment. “Who? Huh?” 

He blinks at her, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “What’s happening right now?”

“Wake up, Schneider.” She throws her arms around him, startling him out of his sleepy state. “Elena called me and I promised to pass along the news.”

“What news? Did she get that job in Boston?”

“She doesn’t know yet. Try again.”

“She changed her mind about the aloofness of cats, and they’re finally getting one and naming it Ruth Bader Kittensburg?”

“Nobody but you thinks that is a good idea,” she replied. 

“Then I give up. Tell me or let me get my beauty rest.”

“Okay, okay.” She tugs him over to the couch. “You’re going to want to sit down.”

“All right...it’s not bad news, is it? Because I was having this really great dream with these Swedish models, and if you woke me just to bum me out, Penelope, I swear--”

“They’re having a baby!”

“What? Get out!” 

“It’s true.” She beams at him. “I guess they’ve been trying for a little while, but IVF can be so hit-or-miss, she didn’t want to tell us until they knew. And it’s happening.”

She hugs him again, squeezing extra hard. “My first grandbaby, Schneider. I can’t believe it.”

“That’s so great. Elena as a mom.” He grins. “Remember when she gave a whole class presentation on how procreation was irresponsible for the planet and the individual and they almost suspended her?”

“Yeah. Good times.” She shrugs when he shoots her a look. “Well, I was the same way when I was young. I swore up and down I was going to do way more interesting things than just getting married and having kids. And you know how that turned out.”

“She’ll be great at it. She’ll be one of those super progressive parents who only buys gender neutral toys for her babies and takes them on service vacations.”

“Probably. Either way, they’re going to be beautiful kids.”

“No doubt about it." Schneider pats her knee. “Congratulations, Pen. Your baby’s having a baby.”

He shifts toward her, intending to kiss her forehead in celebration. At this point it is habit, a sentimental one, tied into how much he loves her family...wrapped up in the way they saved him from himself.

Penelope is smiling at him still, her eyes glittering with happy tears she hasn’t shed, and he just doesn’t think about it.

He kisses her joyfully, mouth hot against hers for the briefest fraction of a second. It’s all celebration, another milestone for his family of choice, a bright spot for them both.

Schneider knows she worries more every day about her kids’ adult lives, and the increasing quiet of her own. She won’t listen to his attempts to reassure her that her future is bright; he can’t get her to believe him.

But that isn’t why he kissed her.

Elena is healthy and happy and about to start a family and thanks to Penelope he has gotten to see that, he got to see her grow up and be a part of it. Now there will be a new baby, one he can babysit when she’s in town, one he can do his best to spoil.

His life is so full even with the Alvarez clan scattered; he loves them all so much--he loves **her** so much, and he is too happy to think it through.

When Penelope narrows her eyes at him in the wake of the kiss, Schneider starts thinking again, and freezes. He’s been so careful, across these years, to redirect his feelings to safe places. Hugs and forehead kisses and hand holding occasionally--nothing more. Nothing risky.

All to avoid this, his favorite person in the world frowning thoughtfully at him as he senses the gathering storm.

Penelope Alvarez is the center of his rich, slightly aimless life; she has been for a long time. 

And she was the only one who didn’t know it...until now.

“Schneider,” Penelope says quietly, half a question buried in the way she says his name. Her eyes are searching his face, joy overtaken by shock as her gaze flicks down to his mouth and then to his hands where he’s tapping them restlessly in his lap.

Then she bites her bottom lip. And he’s sunk.

It was a tiny betrayal of his self-imposed rules, barely a kiss at all. Maybe if she weren’t so sweet and soft and warm, he could even have brushed it off as an affectionate moment between friends. But now that Schneider knows what she tastes like-- _well, fuck,_ he wants more.

He wants it more than he wants a drink, another longing he’s carried for years and kept at arms’ length. He almost wants it more than air, in that sharp, clear moment, with Penelope staring at his hands and terrifyingly quiet. Schneider’s self-control is essential to his survival, and he has a lot of experience denying himself dangerous things, but in her company his willpower is a very thin wall on very shaky ground.

When Penelope finally speaks again, her voice is small and strangely young. Her hands slide over and into his, their fingers entwined so he has to stop moving. It gets his attention, which was nervously darting anywhere but in her direction.

“Pat,” Penelope whispers, while she’s holding both his hands, and it takes his breath away. In all the years she’s known him, he’s never heard her say his name. 

Not once.

And certainly not like this.

He can’t handle it, the way her chin is trembling a little and her eyes are so dark on his and her fingertips are digging into his palms. 

Schneider’s control cracks.

His hands are in her hair, tugging harder than he meant to, gentling when she gasps. Penelope’s mouth against his is heaven and hell _and when did he start thinking in poetry?_ and when her lips part and she’s the one deepening the kiss, he’s too lost in her to be embarrassed by the groan she pulls from him.

“God, Pen.” He rests his forehead against hers to steal a breath, knowing she might come to her senses now, she might remember that she’s too smart and strong and fierce to be here with him like this. Schneider just wants to bask in the moment for all it’s worth.

She laughs, still pressed close, still with him, and says, “Yeah, what are we doing?” through the chuckle. But her fingers are trailing up his chest, toying with the buttons of his shirt, and then Penelope is dragging her thumb along his lower lip and closing her eyes and nipping at his jaw with her teeth.

And Schneider knew she was passionate, he’s had some deeply inappropriate and totally believable dreams about her over the years, but nothing comes close to the reality of Penelope grinning against his mouth like this development makes perfect sense before she straddles him and sets his glasses aside.

Maybe it does make sense, maybe nothing’s ever been so predictable: the sweet and loyal man who hides behind his jokes falling for the endlessly brave and slightly broken single mom. 

But he wasn’t prepared for a plot twist.

Honestly, somewhere around rehab attempt #3, Schneider stopped expecting a happy ending at all. He doesn’t deserve it.

He’s mostly content, and he found a great family, and they may not be his, but they also are just a little, and it’s enough.

It’s more than enough.

He never needed Penelope to want him back.

Her hands are tugging at the hem of his shirt now, trying to get past the snug blue cotton, and her mouth is eager against his, and the wall Schneider built to hold himself at a distance is being washed away with every sweep of her tongue and brush of her fingertips.

 _This is **Penelope,**_ he keeps thinking, _this is his best friend who he loves._

Schneider knows she loves him back in her own way, he’s known for a long time, but now he can feel it--it’s like fire wherever she touches him. Maybe her way isn’t so different from his.

Pen pulls her strappy pajama top off in one fluid motion, using his hips for balance, and all his capacity for rational thought just shuts off.

She’s rocking against him a little _and god he wants her_ and it’s a really good thing that he has so much practice stepping back from the edge of temptation.

“Are you sure about this?” Schneider swallows hard, relieved when Penelope nods and kisses him on both cheeks, trying to wipe the concern off his face.

“I’m sure. There was one thing I forgot,” she adds, kissing each of his temples as punctuation, “when I spent all those nights worried I was never going to find somebody to share my life with. One really important thing.”

He’s breathing hard, her hands gripping his shoulders a little too firmly. He can’t say he minds. “Yeah? What’s that?”

Penelope tilts her face up and kisses his forehead--all tenderness this time, no heat.

“I already did.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've never played with the 5 Times/1 Time trope before and it was really fun. Thanks for reading!


End file.
